On the recordMarch 16, 2016
upon waking this morning, like a lot of other people did, I put on the news. About midway through the morning, about 7 a.m., a bulletin came out that the President had selected a nominee for the Supreme Court. Newsworthy. At about 7 a.m., the email came out that said: ``I've made my decision.'' At 7:07 this morning, White House Legislative Affairs circulated a notification to all those folks on Capitol Hill, including our office, from President Obama that stated this fact: ``We've reached out to every member of the Senate, who each have a responsibility to do their job and take this nomination just as seriously.'' Well, this Senator thought that was very interesting because we hadn't received a notification. At 7:14 a.m., 7 minutes later, the White House Legislative Affairs Office emailed my chief of staff with an attachment of the 7:07 a.m. email from the White House notifying that they had this. So when my counsel called over to the White House Counsel and said: You stated earlier this morning that you contacted our offices--``you have reached out to us'' was the term--they clarified later in the morning: Well, that email we sent after we said we contacted you was really the contact that we meant to send earlier. This was quite a morning for us. It is again the same doublespeak we received from the White House.…





